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From brand awareness to Google Fact Check: content marketing trends

Brand awareness is no major barrier to content success

According to Outbrain, approximately 60% of consumers believe relevant content is trustworthy. It doesn’t matter about brand awareness – they’ll read it, even if it’s published by an unfamiliar brand.

This suggests three main points for marketing bods to consider:

Content punches far above its weight as a marketing resource. It provides a level of value to the reader un-matched by most other forms of marketing. If the same study had been carried out on traditional ads, it’s highly unlikely that such a high percentage of consumers would trust an unknown source.

Prior reputation is no barrier to becoming an authoritative voice in a particular field. If you have expertise that people want to know about, then you’re a valuable resource. Brand awareness has little to do with it.

Content marketing is a great entry-point for consumers to get to know your brand. Unlike a pushy ad or poorly targeted campaign, content marketing puts onus on providing value for the consumer from the get-go. This helps to build trust quickly and makes sure your brand stays lodged firmly in their mind.

That’s why content marketing should be a key component of your marketing strategy. And, if it’s not already, then here’s the evidence you need to prove its worth to the C-suite.

Consumers are looking for a little less screen time

One in every five consumers would like to spend less time staring at screens in the year ahead. This is according to a brand new study from Code Computerlove.

This is hardly surprising, given that the average person now spends more time on mobile, laptop or desktop devices (or, watching TV, if you want to go old-school) than they do asleep.

That’s great news for attention-starved families, but not so good for content marketers… or, opticians.

At the most basic level, this suggests that content marketers will have to up their game in terms of providing relevant, compelling content that persuades people to stay online.

But, the study also points to another potentially lucrative avenue for content marketers – and, it’s one we’ve explored before!

People want less screentime, but this doesn’t mean they want to spend less time with technology.

In fact, 24.7% of consumers hope to use voice search for purchasing in the year ahead. So, the best way to keep people engaging with your brand – even when they’re screen-free – might just be to dedicate more time and effort to tailoring content for the type of natural language demanded by voice search.

Spotted in the news…

Google Fact Check entered the content universe back in October – just as everyone began shouting “FAKE NEWS!!!” at one another.

Having originally been rolled out in specific countries and limited to Google News articles only, the software had promise. However it felt like it was yet to get out of beta-mode.